HR folk believe engagement surveys help with engagement. Shame no one else does.
My mate Jon Ingham is at a Westminster briefing today. I know this because he is tweeting from there. He’s just thrown me a bone as follows:
“#westminbriefing audience poll: do surveys help or hinder employee engagement? 72% help, 9% hinder (one for @dougshaw1)”
I ask Jon what the audience make up is – “nearly all public sector HR” comes the reply.
Across the civil service less than four out of ten people believe action will be taken as a result of them filling in engagement surveys. (and the joke is – I got these figures from the 2010 civil service staff survey!).
So there you have it – evidence that the people who count don’t believe this stuff. What this shows me is that HR folk need to spend more time with people in other roles, otherwise as these figures from Jon show – they begin to believe their own hype.
I’m looking forward to my visit, to get to see a few familiar faces, and to meet and learn from some new ones too. What is social recruitment all about? I guess we all have our own ideas; I’d be interested to hear yours. I’ve had a few conversations with conference chair Alan Whitford about this and the thoughts and ideas we have bounced around include:
We thought it might be useful to try and sum up these feelings and ideas, and I suggested that rather than write another blog post on the subject, we should experiment a little. So here’s a song for you. A song about social recruitment. I hope it prompts a few questions for the event next week – looking forward to seeing you there.
Lyrics:
Career advice is plentiful
You’re lost in the maze
So many ways to do this stuff
A head banging haze
I’ve done all my research
My planning is meticulous
If I think about any more
Slide from sublime to ridiculous
Yet there is something wrong
I need experts to see what they meant
I don’t understand
Don’t get social recruitment
Is it about engagement
And the importance of communication
But these two terms so over used
Like verbal constipation
They say all this social
Do it now or fall behind
Better get your message sorted
Or your business will be blind
No one sits still no more your business must be Mobile
Your brand has to be authentic
Else how you gonna make a pile
Is your strategy about technology, or maybe it’s cost saving
If you get the behaviour right, folk’s careers you can be saving
I don’t have to tell you, it’s Innovate or die,
I want to be there laughing with you
Not sitting back trying not to cry
Be Locally global take this thing around the world
Be Globally local your banner is unfurled
Be locally Global you wanna make that call
Be globally local grow the market grow it all
Where can you go
Be in the know
Be energetic
I don’t want ponderous
Head to London town
On 30th June
To the social recruiting conference
The Beeb showed Kung Fu Panda yesterday evening. I’d seen it before and loved it, Carole and Keira hadn’t so we sat down and enjoyed it. The animation is beautiful and the story line is funny and powerful.
This morning I spotted a tweet from Ann Tran quoting from the film. The quote was “Anything is possible when you have inner peace”, and it reminded me of a great passage from the movie about the illusion of control.
Having previously written about the illusion of control, this passage struck a chord with me and I’d like to share it with you here:
Oogway: My friend, the panda will never fulfill his destiny, nor you yours until you let go of the illusion of control. Shifu: Illusion? Oogway: Yes.
[points at peach tree] Oogway: Look at this tree, Shifu: I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time. Shifu: But there are things we *can* control: I can control when the fruit will fall, I can control where to plant the seed: that is no illusion, Master! Oogway: Ah, yes. But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach. Shifu: But a peach cannot defeat Tai Lung! Oogway: Maybe it can, if you are willing to guide, to nurture it, to believe in it. Shifu: But how? How? I need your help, master. Oogway: No, you just need to believe. Promise me, Shifu, promise me you will believe.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have Oogway as your HRD – just imagine the possibilities.
